Stewart Wade, who will turn 102 in a few
months, was born before commercial airline travel existed, but in
September he’ll board a jet for a trip back into his past.

Wade
plans to fly from his home in Hawaii to Sonoma County to mark the
planned completion of a restoration effort for a one-room schoolhouse in
the hills west of Healdsburg that he attended in the 1920s.

“It’s a big thing for me to think my school is still there,” Wade said last week by telephone from Kailua, Oahu.

The
133-year-old Daniels School on Mill Creek Road has slowly been restored
over the past 15 years with the help of volunteers and donations,
although there is still plenty of work to be done prior to the Sept. 17
dedication.

But the end is in sight.

“At
last we can see the end to this restoration project and we are really
looking forward to a big celebration and this open house to honor former
students and people who were so generous with donations and their
time,” said Bonnie Cussins Pitkin, 72, an alumna who spearheaded the
restoration.

One-room
schoolhouses once were common in rural areas across the country,
including Sonoma County, where a survey a century ago counted 120 of
them. Today only a handful survive.

At
Daniels School, which was built in 1883, one teacher taught academic
basics to boys and girls in grades one through eight, the typical
arrangement.

Children came
from miles around on foot or horseback, from surrounding countryside
that was successively logged for giant redwoods and mined for magnesite
before a tanbark industry took hold, along with vineyards, and prune and
apple orchards.

Former
students remember the pot belly stove they used for warmth on rainy days
and the water bucket filled from a nearby stream they all shared
because there was no running water.

They staged plays in a meadow, and their playground was in the road, because there were so few vehicles.

Wade,
a sharp-minded centenarian who still works part time as a real estate
agent and swims three times a week in the ocean, recalls how he and
other boys trapped raccoons near the school and sold them for $3 per
pelt.

Sometimes they caught skunks and
“the school stunk from that,” he said. “Kids would take guns to
school,” part of a hunting culture when it wasn’t out of the ordinary to
carry a .22 rifle in the woods. Wade went through all eight grades, from 1921 to 1929, and later graduated from Healdsburg High in 1933.

He credits his longevity to “exercise and attitude.”

“He
doesn’t let anything bother him. He’s not a Type A person,” said his
wife, Ceci, who also will attend the rededication of the school.

Pitkin attended Daniels School as a first-grader just before it closed in 1951.

She
wants local schoolchildren to take field trips to Daniels School and
learn what it was like to attend there, with refurbished desks, a piano,
even the school’s 45-star American flag which has been housed at the
Healdsburg Museum.

Pikin’s
family owned the school until donating the 16-by-26-foot building and a
half-acre around it to the Venado Historical Society, which draws its
name from the surrounding community established in the early 1900s.

In the late 1990s, efforts were launched to rehabilitate the old schoolhouse.

The
foundation, porch and awning were rebuilt, but things stalled when one
of the main organizers, the late Flora May Cootes-Caletti, began to
suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.

Last year, restoration efforts
regained momentum with a $14,500 grant from the Sonoma County Landmarks
Commission, coupled with donations and volunteer work.

A new roof and windows were installed. Now cedar siding donated by Healdsburg Lumber Co. is being put up.

Mark Rogers, a Santa Rosa contractor who is donating his time on the
project, said he can use help. Skilled or semi-skilled help would be
great, but he is willing to train anyone who wants to assist.
“If
they can hold the end of a board or tape measure, or they have skills
with painting — any level of knowledge — if they want to learn, come out
and do that,” he said.

He said the building still needs to be weather-proofed, along with electrical work, insulation and dry wall.

Regardless of whether all the work gets completed by then, Pitkin vowed the Sept. 17 celebration will go on.

“We will have the opening, whether it’s finished or not,” she said.

More information on how to volunteer or donate to the project is available at danielsschool.blogspot.com.

Monday, July 13, 2015

BY CLARK MASON

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

June 29, 2015, 2:27PM

It’s been 78 years since Florence
Nylander Bates attended a one-room schoolhouse in the hills west of
Healdsburg, but the memories are still vivid — the white dresses the
girls wore on graduation day, the play they staged in a meadow, the
potbelly stove they warmed themselves with on rainy days, and the
12-mile, daily round-trip journey she made on her horse to get to
school.

“It was almost idyllic. You felt
protected and everybody was nice to you,” said Bates, who graduated from
the school’s eighth-grade class in 1938.

Florence Bates attended R.A. Daniels School off Mill Creek Road near Venado, west of Healdsburg, in 1938. The school had been in disrepair for years, but in the past few years, restoration has begin to preserve the old school, Monday June 22, 2015.
(Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015

She is part of a handful of alumni
working to restore the schoolhouse, an effort that has regained momentum
thanks to a $14,500 grant from the Sonoma County Landmarks Commission,
coupled with donations and volunteer work.

A new roof and windows were
installed this spring on the schoolhouse, which was built from
old-growth redwood but exposed to the elements following its closure in
1951. Next comes siding and interior work, including a renewed
electricity supply, something the old structure only had after World War
II, when its kerosene lanterns were replaced.

“I’m making real progress,” said
Bonnie Cussins Pitkin, 71, who is spearheading the $40,000 restoration
effort for the cherished school, which she attended one year prior to
its closure, when she was in first grade.

New Windows at the R.A. Daniels School off Mill Creek Road west of
Healdsburg frames school alumnus Bonnie Pitkin, Monday June 22, 2015.
(Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015

Pitkin’s vision is to provide an
opportunity for local schoolchildren to take field trips to Daniels
School and learn what it was like to go to a one-room school, which were
common in rural areas across the country. At Daniels School, one
teacher taught academic basics to boys and girls in grades one through
eight, the typical arrangement.

In 1916, there were 120 one-room
schoolhouses in Sonoma County — including Daniels School — according to a
thesis written then by Stanford University student Tillman Elliott
Baker, who proposed reorganizing the school system.

Today, only a handful of the one-room schoolhouses survive.

Daniels School sits on a slope up
winding, redwood-lined Mill Creek Road, seven miles from the
intersection with Westside Road and a little more than eight miles from
Healdsburg.

Pitkin’s family owned it until they
donated the 16-by-26-foot building and a half-acre around it to the
Venado Historical Society, which draws its name from the surrounding
community established in the early 1900s.

These days, about the only time
Venado gets mentioned is when a meteorologist calls out the impressive
rainfall totals it can reap in winter storms. Located in a step of the
steep hills on the edge of the Cazadero “rainforest,” one TV weatherman
dubbed it “the rain capital of the Bay Area.”

Venado, Spanish for “deer,” was
named by mining engineer Stillman Batchellor, the first postmaster in
1921. By then, earlier generations that came to log the giant redwoods
and work a magnesite mine had departed.

The schoolhouse was built over eight
days in the spring of 1883, following a bitter fight over where it
should be located. The land was donated by Daniel Davis, a sea captain
from Maine whose wide interests landed him in Sonoma County, according
to Holly Hoods, curator for the Healdsburg Museum and Historical
Society, who wrote the grant proposal to help restore the school.

Daniels School Students From A Bygone Era

By 1903, the resident population
dwindled and the school shut down for lack of pupils. But it reopened
four years later and was rechristened in honor of Ray A. Daniels, a
primary mover and shaker in re-establishing the school.

Fruit ranching and the tanbark industry brought new purpose, people and prosperity to upper Mill Creek, according to Hoods.

“The land that has been cleared has
proved fine fruit land, and vineyards and prune orchards are taking the
place of the redwood groves,” is how the Healdsburg Tribune described
Venado in 1925.

One of those who attended the school
at the time, from 1921 to 1929, was centenarian Stewart Wade, whose
father was a contractor and road builder who helped complete Mill Creek
Road.

“We had very good teachers; I
thought they were quite dedicated,” Wade said of the female instructors
who came for two-year stints and were put up in the homes of area
families.

Wade, who will turn 101 in November
and still works part time as a real estate agent, spoke by phone from
his Honolulu home this week.

He remembers there was no running water at the school.

“We had to carry a bucket from the
spring down the road,” he said, adding that all the children used the
same dipper to drink from. If one caught a cold, he said, they would all
get it.

The oldest boys in the school got
the job of janitor and were paid a few dollars a month for sweeping the
floors with redwood sawdust soaked in oil.

“The only playground we had was a
road where we played most of the time,” he said. “It was very safe in
those days. Cars didn’t travel very fast, and the wagons, we could hear
them coming from a long way.”

One wagon in particular, Wade said,
came from a Santa Rosa candy store, but it wasn’t there to satisfy the
children’s sweet tooth. It was during the Prohibition era and the sugar
hidden under a canvas in the back of the wagon went to a nearby still
where it was used to make booze, he said.

Wade also recalled the “fruit
tramps” who came to work the summer harvests. They hailed from the
Midwest and typically had one big car with all their possessions and
family inside. They were on a circuit that included the raisin harvest
in Fresno, with a swing through Sonoma County before heading to Oregon
for the pears and apples.

Usually, they had two or three kids with them, who would end up for a short time at Daniels School.

When Bates graduated in 1938, a
decade after Wade, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, Babe Ruth was
coaching the Brooklyn Dodgers, a gallon of gas was 10 cents, and the
average price of a new car was $763.

But her family was poor and she was
still riding to school on her horse named Lady, sometimes having to
navigate the rain-swollen East Austin Creek with the help of her father
and sometimes getting home after dark.

“My sister would ride double with me
to the top of the ‘ladder,’” she said of the steep grade at the top of
Mill Creek Road where her older sister would get off the horse and walk
back home while Bates headed for the schoolhouse.

On the way to school, she said, “you
would talk to yourself, which I still do,” and look out for bird nests
to see if the eggs were hatching. “If I saw a rattlesnake, I killed it.
That’s what you did in those days,” she said.

Bates relishes those bygone school days.

“I remember the teacher taking us to the creek and reading out loud to us. I loved that,” she said.

She also lifted her forearm to show
the scar she has from when she fell onto a broken windshield near the
school and needed stitches to close the cut.

There hasn’t been a lesson taught in
the little schoolhouse since 1951, when unification brought five small
schools (Felta, West Side, Mill Creek, Junction and Daniels) together in
the Westside Union District.

Efforts began in the late 1990s to
rehabilitate the old schoolhouse. The foundation, porch and awning were
rebuilt, but renovations were delayed when the leader in the effort,
Flora May Cootes-Caletti, became ill.

In 2010, a fundraising drive was
renewed, with local contractors, including Mike Flower, donating time to
the rebuilding, ZFA Associates doing the structural engineering and
local businesses like Healdsburg Lumber Co. donating materials.

Contributions are still being
solicited to complete the interior work. And Pitkin is still looking to
hear from former Daniels School pupils.

Contributions can be made at danielsschool.blogspot.com, or sent to the Venado Historical Society, 8000 Mill Creek Road, Healdsburg 95448.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Daniels School Restoration Proceeding In Rural Healdsburg

A work in progress...Bonnie Cussins-Pitkin, a former student at
the Daniels School, is working to restore it and create a historical
resource for the community.

The Daniels
School, a one-room schoolhouse built in the 1800s, is receiving a
thorough restoration by a dedicated group of former students and history
buffs.Bonnie
Cussins-Pitkin is leading the current phase of the restoration, which
was begun by her former third grade teacher, Flora May Caletti, a dozen
years ago.

Cussins-Pitkin and other Daniels
School supporters formed the Venado Historical Society and were able to
set aside a half acre along Mill Creek Road as a historic district.

They are working with engineers
and contractors to restore the school, and the old redwood siding is now
shored up inside with new framing. New windows are coming soon.

The ultimate goal is to create a
historical resource, so local students can learn about rural life a
century ago. “We want students to come and visit and go see the wild
flowers we used to pick and draw,” Cussins-Pitkin said.

She went on to explain that
students will be able to learn about local trees, walk to the creek to
see where rural students once got their drinking water, and find out
about the Pomo Indians, who were in the area prior to European settlers.

Once restored, the schoolhouse
will have a real slate chalkboard, an upright piano, wooden desks and
photographs that illustrate local history.

Cussins-Pitkin attended Daniels
School for first grade, and now lives up the hill from the old school,
which was first built farther up Mill Creek Road in 1883.

It was originally called the Venado School, and was moved a few years after it was built.

“A man named Daniels sad they could move it to his property if they renamed the school after him,” Cussins-Pitkin said.

Leafing through a binder of old
documents and photos, Cussins-Pitkin shows that the old wooden flagpole
for the school is still there, and points out photos from “the day the
goat came to school” and the shaved heads of the boys the year the
students got headlice.

Holes in an outside wall show where pegs were installed for students to hang coast and hats.

Funding for the project is coming from a Sonoma County Landmarks Commission grant and local donations.

ZFA Structural Engineers and Mike
Flowers of Oak Shadows Construction are donating time, and Healdsburg
Lumber is providing building materials at or below cost. “We try to help
nonprofits anytime we can,” said Eric Ziedrich, president of Healdsburg
Lumber.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Sitting on the porch of the Daniels School, I was waiting for delivery of windows. I glanced around to see the pastel pink buds of the old rose bush on the corner of the porch. Then I remembered the wedding we had in a play held in the Spring of l951. Richard Tabor was the only other 1st grader and he was the groom. The students threw rose petals at us as we walked down the steps and walkway..

I cherish that joyful memory of the past, but the jubilation I feel in the present is beyond compare. At last work has commenced on the restoration of Daniels School again.

Many thanks to Mike Flowers owner, Oak Shadows Construction, who has volunteered his time. The framing inside is complete, including the "sistering in" whenever possible to preserve the old redwood, and we can look up outside at the new shake roof with pride.

Sincerest thanks to Eric Dietrich of the Healdsburg Lumber Company for the generous reduction on lumber costs as well as the windows from Hudson Street Design.

The flagpole, restored to white again stands amongst a patch of yellow Diogenes Lanterns. These and the Redwood Orchid are among the many wildflowers we collected, identified and drew. The teacher displayed the art work above the windows and I was amazed at the fine detail, color and likeness in every petal to those we had collected. These memories in the school and down by the creek, where the teacher read to us, come back to me as I watch the restoration unfold.

Most of all, we wish to thank the Sonoma County Landmarks Commission for their grant funds, as well as the many dedicated and generous donors who have continued to support this project over the years. We will be applying again to the Landmarks Commission for Phase 2 of the project, but will move forward to continue the project as monies and volunteer time allow.

TOGETHER WITH YOU, WE ARE NOT ONLY SAVING SONOMA COUNTY HISTORIC LANDMARK #186, WE ARE SAVING A PIECE OF HISTORY AND THE STORIES OF THE PEOPLE WHO LIVED AND WORKED IN THE TOWN OF VENADO ON MILL CREEK ROAD.

Friday, September 19, 2014

GREAT NEWS!!! The Venado Historical Society was awarded a grant agreement from the Sonoma County Landmarks Commission in the amount of $14,500.00!!!This will allow us to begin Phase 1 of the project which is to secure the building. We will restore and rebuild, (as needed) the exterior including rafters, roof, windows, and some of the siding.

Special thanks go to several professionals who donated their time and expertise to fulfill the requirements for the grant proposal:

The decision was made to acquire a grant (s) in
order to obtain the $30,000 to $40,000 needed to complete the restoration of
the school.

Gloria attended a grant writing class at SRJC
and began the lengthy process of applying for the Federal and State Exemption
Status, which is a requirement of foundations or corporations who award grants.

An attorney was secured, who reduced his fee, after
seeing all the paperwork and endless forms Gloria had completed.All request forms have been filed with the
U.S. Treasury and State and now we have a waiting period of up to six (6)
months.

In the interim, Gloria will research foundations
that may be interested in the project
and then grant forms will be prepared.

Don’t give up on us.

We will preserve and
complete the restoration of the Daniels
School.

We look forward to
conducting field trips for students in the near future.

If
you know of any foundations or corporations that may be interested in preserving this California Historic
Landmark, please
contact the:

Friday, May 6, 2011

DANIELS SCHOOL RESTORATION PROJECTThe 120 year old - one room school house on Mill Creek Road in Healdsburg

Project Update!

Progress Report:

In May 2010, we began the Daniels School Restoration Project by asking for donations to pay for the various Sonoma County conditional requirements and permits to place Daniels School into a minor subdivision and begin the restoration of the old school house.

We were able to raise nearly $6,000 in generous donations from local residents, organizations, and businesses. In addition, many professionals drastically reduce their fees to help us and 45 people attended our barbecue fundraiser at Mill Creek Winery.

We were able to obtain a waiver of approximately $3,700 from the County Board of Supervisors, under the guidance of the previous supervisor, Paul Kelley. We now have enough funds to finish the paperwork for Title Insurance requirements, Map Check fees, Architectural Design fees, Sonoma Landmark Commission fees, and Sonoma County Building Department fees. However, the previous donations will be gone.

So now we begin again to raise funds for materials for the restoration. We need framing materials, such as 2x4's, 2x6's, 4x10's, 4x12's, etc., windows, doors, roofing materials, interior/exterior siding, interior ceiling, electrical wiring, a pot belly stove (circa 1889), school desks and bookcases, blackboards, as well as a teacher's desk and chair.

In May 2011 we launched the NEW Daniels School Restoration Blog: http://danielsschool.blogspot.com/ - We will be utilizing this website to solicit much needed monetary donations from the general public. We came to understand that many businesses and individuals have been asking for an online option to donate to our worthy cause, so we listened, and now that request has been realized. Please visit the Blog today to make your donation, it takes less than 3 minutes! We will also be using this website as a forum for communication...Sending updates of upcoming events, giving you updates on the work we do at Daniels School, and also a place we can recognize everyone that has helped us so far.

We have already scheduled a work day on Saturday, June 11, 2011 ~ 9am - ???

Now that Spring has sprung, the weather has warmed up and our thoughts have now turned to CLEANING! The sunny weather fills us with optimism and enthusiasm. There is much to do at our little schoolhouse, so please come out for a day full of productivity and community spirit! We need to clean the grounds and remove the old lumber, brush, leaves and other debris around the schoolhouse and surrounding property﻿. We can also remove some of the old siding. Please wear your work clothes and bring your rakes, pruning shears, hoes, loppers, chain saws, hammers, other yard tools, and of course your work gloves. A delicious Hamburger Bar-B-Que lunch will be served to all workers and volunteers who show up to lend a helping hand. Come work and have fun as we begin the long awaited preparation to rebuild our beloved Daniels Schoolhouse!

Finally, if you can supply any of the above materials, please contact, Gloria Egger at 707.433.7732 or Bonnie Cussins-Pitkin at 707.433.3301. All financial donations may be sent to the address above, or simply log on to our blog at: http://danielsschool.blogspot.com/. Your donation is, of course, tax-deductible!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Now that Spring has sprung, the weather has warmed up and our thoughts have now turned to CLEANING! The sunny weather fills us with optimism and enthusiasm. There is much to do at our little schoolhouse, so please come out for a day full of productivity and community spirit!

We need to clean the grounds and remove the old lumber, brush, leaves and other debris around the schoolhouse and surrounding property﻿. We can also remove some of the old siding.

A delicious Hamburger Bar-B-Que lunch will be served to all workers and volunteers who show up to lend a helping hand. Come work and have fun as we begin the long awaited preparation to rebuild our beloved Daniels Schoolhouse!

Tucked away underneath the redwoods, Daniels Schoolhouse stands empty and silent in the hills above Healdsburg. Cars occasionally pass by on Mill Creek Road, often driven by the children and grandchildren of the original settlers who first came to the logging community of Venado in the early part of the 20th century.

Gloria Egger and Bonnie Cussins-Pitkin remember a time when the one-room schoolhouse was not silent. A time when perhaps a dozen students—children of a handful of families living in the remote hills of Mill Creek—gathered to learn.

The two Mill Creek Road residents, along with neighbor Kimberly Flowers, have come together to raise money to restore the schoolhouse so future generations of children may visit and understand how the original settlers lived. They estimate they’ll need up to $50,000 for the project--$10,000 for county permits and up to $40,000 to rebuild and maintain the structure as a local landmark. They’re also looking for the schoolhouse’s original furniture and any items rescued by neighbors in the years after the school closed.

“It’s like a dream come true,” said Cussins-Pitkin. “I always came back here thinking, when will we bring this back?”

The school closed in 1951 when the number of students had declined to the point where it became necessary to send them down the road to Mill Creek School, another one-room schoolhouse. It’s sat nearly undisturbed for long decades.

Daniels, like most of the one-room schoolhouses in the Healdsburg area, was housed on private property. Unlike many of these buildings, the property owner spared Daniels.

Local historian Kay Robinson has researched one-room schoolhouses in recent years, documenting 15 in the Dry Creek watershed including Daniels School. “About a third of the ones I researched still exist,” she said. “The others, I’m pretty sure, have been destroyed. Burned, removed, taken down for lumber, I don’t know.”

The fate of these schoolhouses varies from district to district. Of the five in what is now the West Side Union School District, only one, Felta School, has been totally restored.

Junction School was converted into a residence after it closed in 1952. Mill Creek School was dismantled in the late 1950s.

Lafayette School was dismantled around 1970. Jerry Arrigoni, the owner of the Westside Road property where the schoolhouse once stood, said it was in bad shape when he bought the land in 1969.

“When I bought the place hippies were living in it,” he said. “They’d burned a hole in the floor and were tearing out the old redwood for firewood. It really wasn’t worth putting a lot of money fixing it up because of the fire they did.”

So Arrigoni, a former school administrator himself, sold it to a neighbor for $1 to build a barn.

While the area’s other four schoolhouses met various fates, Daniels School sat undisturbed. Property owner Stanley Stuart—Cussins-Pitkin’s uncle—lived in Concord and left the structure alone. Then in 1993 Cussins-Pitkin bought the property and inherited the schoolhouse.

“I was delighted,” she said. “I was hoping that one day it could be renovated.”

Her hopes were nearly met in 1998 when the Venado Historical Society formed to restore the schoolhouse and community post office. In 1999 contractors raised the schoolhouse building and put in a new foundation, cripple walls and a front entrance porch and stairs. The full restoration halted when Floramay Caletti — a former student at the school and teacher at Mill Creek School — fell ill.

Now, nearly a decade later, the new group of Mill Creek ladies have come together to continue Caletti’s work. “Floramay started it and practically had it finished,” said Cussins-Pitkin.

Egger and Cussins-Pitkin chattered back and forth on a recent weekday afternoon, recalling stories of their youth at the schoolhouse. Egger, a few years senior, attended the school for one year in the late 1940s when her father fell ill and she lived with her grandparents. Cussins-Pitkin, who also attended the school for only one year, attended the Daniels for the school’s final year in 1951.

“We’d build forts on the hillside above the school, and throw rotten fruit and vegetables at each other at recess,” said Egger, standing inside the long abandoned schoolhouse. “We wouldn’t hit each other. Those are the things I remember. The good, clean fun.”

The two spoke of Christmas recitals, of drawing water from the spring and ladling out of a bucket, and dunking for apples. “Our teacher went out wildflower picking with us,” remembers Cussins-Pitkin. “I knew the name of every flower, or every tree.”

The Venado Historical Society is now accepting donations for the project and ask donors to send a check to the Venado Historical Society, 7751 A Mill Creek Road, Healdsburg, CA 95448. Those with questions can call Gloria Egger at 707.433.7732 or Bonnie Cussins-Pitkin at 707.433.3301.

A 120-year-old, one-room schoolhouse sits off winding Mill Creek Road west of Healdsburg, a remnant of the nearly forgotten community of Venado.

By this time next year, if local residents are successful in raising enough money, the decaying structure will be restored as an example of the schoolhouses that once dotted rural America.

“Daniels School” as it was known closed in 1951. But on Friday two women who attended it walked around the dusty inside and reminisced about those long-ago days.

“I remember all the paper and crayons. I was probably five or six. There was one other boy in the first grade with me,” said Bonnie Cussins-Pitkin, who attended for one year prior to the school closing due to falling enrollment.

Pitkin, 66, remembers that first day of school, when the teacher asked her to go to the blackboard and write the numbers from 1 to 10. She turned to the boy in her grade and asked him quietly, “Richard do you know?”

“I know some of them,” he replied.

“So the two of us worked together” to produce all the right numbers on the chalkboard, she said.

The memories came flooding back Friday: the potbelly stove, the placement of desks for the teacher and her eight or ten pupils, the two outhouses, the songs they sang, the games they played at recess.

Gloria Egger, 71, also attended the school for a year.

“We had people riding ponies to school,” said Egger, a semi-retired real estate agent, who like Pitkin still lives nearby.

Egger remembers rainy days when her grandfather would put her in galoshes and stick her on the back of his tractor to take her to and from school.

She has vague memories of the classroom itself. One female teacher taught first through eighth grades, all in the room measuring 284 square feet.

But Egger remembers playtime vividly.

The children brought rotting fruit and vegetables to toss at each other.
“We’d build forts and would throw rotten fruits in recess,” she said.

“We didn’t know we were girls, we just played with the boys,” she said.

The two women are spearheading a $40,000 fund-raising drive to rebuild the decaying historical landmark from floor to roof. Historical accounts and the two women say the school is named after R. A. Daniels, who agreed to move the school to its present location more than a century ago.

They need to obtain the necessary county permits and also subdivide the half-acre school site from a larger parcel, so it can be donated to the Venado Historical Society.

Venado is the Spanish word for deer or venison. The hamlet in the hills eight miles west of Healdsburg got its name from Stillman Batchellor, a mining engineer turned fruitgrower who settled in the area in the early 1900s after working in Cuba and Mexico.

Even before Batchellor established his El Venado Ranch, settlers were attracted to Mill Creek by the mining, logging and tanbark. March’s Mill, one of the earliest sawmills in the county, gave the creek its name in the 1850s, according to historian Gaye LeBaron.

Besides the school house, about the only tangible remnant of the community is the redwood-shake Venado Post Office that operated from 1922 to 1941, according to the Russian River Recorder.

Old-timers remembered how early automobile dealers used the start of Mill Creek Road as sort of a proving ground. They would drive the steep and slippery “Hopper Hill” at the start of the road to demonstrate how good their cars were.

In 1925, an article in the Healdsburg Tribune Weekly reported that “Venado is so new, and so far from the regular beaten track of tourists that is has attracted little attention.”

That assessment about the lack of tourists still rings true today, though occasional bicyclists use that same hill as a training ground.

The old school house sits on a slope up winding, redwood-lined Mill Creek Road, seven miles from the intersection with Westside Road.

Even though its off the beaten path, the stories live on of the events at Daniels School and the backwoods: wild pigs, rattlesnakes, traplines and fighting forest fires.

Efforts began in the late 1990s to rehabilitate the old school house. The foundation, porch and awning were rebuilt. But the dream of renovating the schoolhouse was delayed when the leader in the effort, Flora May Cootes-Caletti, became ill.

About two weeks ago the fund drive was renewed. Letters have gone out to local residents, Healdsburg businesses and wineries. So far, almost $900 has come in.

A local contractor is donating his time to the rebuilding and Standard Structures of Windsor is donating some materials.

Contributions can be sent to the Venado Historical Society, 7751 A Mill Creek Road, Healdsburg, CA, 95448.

Welcome!

Please join us in restoring Daniels School - A 120 year old one room school located at: 8162 Mill Creek Road in Healdsburg, California. The County Landmarks Commission of Sonoma County has clamied Daniels School the 186th Historic Landmark on 09/18/2001!

The Venado Historical Society is a non-profit organization designed to protect the local history of Healdsburg's Mill Creek Road. Fundraising began in May 2010 and $6,000 of the $10,000 needed to meet Sonoma County requirements and building permits has been generously donated by the local residents and the community at large. Many donations have come from children and grandchildren of former students as well as Healdsburg merchants.

We need to raise an additional $25,000 to rebuild, furnish, and maintain the structure in order to provide educational experiences for local school children and residents alike.

Please help with our fundraising campaign with any size, tax deductible contribution. It's as easy as clicking a button! Just follow the "donate" buttons we have already set up just below this welcome message - pick a denomination that you are comfortable with and send us your donation securely and safely via PayPal! We have already received donations for the design, labor, flooring, and any and all donations will be greatly appreciated.

Also, the Venado Historical Society has its own address now and even a mailbox. So if you prefer to mail in your donations, you can do so here:

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO THE SONOMA COUNTY LANDMARKS COMMISSION!!!

$25,000 Is The Magic Number!

We Are PayPal Verified!

What It Means To Be Verified...

To become Verified, a PayPal member in the United States must provide proof that he or she has opened an account at a bank or other financial institution. Because these institutions are required by law to screen account holders, PayPal's verification process increases security when you pay parties you do not know. With PayPal, donors can trust that their contributions are secure and their financial information will not be exposed.

Special Thanks To The Following Individuals!

Our Deepest Gratitude & Heartfelt Thanks!

To All Of The Following Local Businesses & Vendors...We Could Not Have Done This Project Without Your Generous Donations Of Money, Goods, Materials, Time & Love...From The Bottom Of Our Hearts ~ THANK YOU!!!

In 1994 Kim & John Lloyd came up from Southern California looking for the small town quality of life and a potential business opportunity and settled in Healdsburg, Sonoma County. They took over the former Deluxe Foods located at the intersection of Healdsburg Avenue and Dry Creek Road.

When asked about the name, John Lloyd quickly points out that "BIG JOHN" isn't a personal nickname. The "BIG" is an acronym for Better Independent Grocers.

Big John's Market serves the Healdsburg, Geyserville, Alexander Valley, and Dry Creek Valley areas as well as Cloverdale to the North and Windsor to the South.

In 2006 the building and fixtures were completely renovated bringing a fresh new look and adding a food service court and outdoor seating.

Garrett Ace Hardware

A.W. Garrett opened his tin and hardware shop in downtown Healdsburg in the late 1880's, and Garrett Hardware has been dedicated to serving the building and home improvement needs of the Healdsburg and Windsor communities ever since.

Now on the forefront of premier ACE retailers, we pride ourselves in devoting ourselves to helping you with all your hardware needs and more.

Even though Garrett Hardware has grown far beyond the original vision for the store, we have not lost sight of our roots or our hometown nature. We pride ourselves in offering the highest levels of customer service and the product lines that you need to tackle just about any project around your house, all in one convenient, friendly, and comfortable store.

Healdsburg Lumber Company

From foundation to finish hardware and everything in between including windows & doors and even cabinetry, Healdsburg Lumber Company & Gualala Building Supply is your trusted, knowledgeable, premium material supplier for the professional and homeowner on the Mendocino Coast and Northern Sonoma County carrying all your building supply and construction tool needs.

We pride ourselves in our service, knowledge, and professionalism, and can take any project big or small.

If we don't stock something you're looking for, we'll find it for you. We have plumbing tools and a large plumbing supply, irrigation supply, drip garden irrigation and garden watering systems. Home insulation, siding colors, board and batten siding, double pane windows to name a few.

We pursue authenticity in design, materials & craftsmanship to find the unique or rare item that makes your project truly exceptional. We have talented, creative, skilled staff members eager to assist you.

On-line shopping is now available for our TrueValue products. On-line specials, free shipping to our store or shipping direct to your home or jobsite makes shopping easier

Offering the top brands in each category, you'll find quality products not available in "big-box" stores.

We identify the highest quality products, offering our customers the best value, all displayed under one roof, making it easy for you to achieve the exact look and functionality for your home or design project.

Call and make an appointment or simply drop by - we look forward to working with you on your building project.

Carreras Auto Body, the Sonoma County auto body shop located in Healdsburg has a reputation for quality repairs, honest technicians and a lifetime guarantee on repairs. Carreras auto body is a one location repair facility giving you the advantage of dealing directly with the owners. Unlike multi location repair facilities, where service and quality sometimes go's unchecked, you can be reassured your vehicle has been thoroughly tested and inspected for safety, appearance and performance.

"We have a reputation for honesty because we use high-quality parts and do the right repairs to bring your vehicle back to its original condition. And we never hide the deductable from your insurance companies by pumping up the estimate for the repair costs. By doing that, those shops put the customer at risk of fines and being charged with insurance fraud. Our customers would rather get honest repairs at a fair price than risky gimmicks."

—Dan Vassallo

At Carreras Auto Body we guarantee your work for as long as you own your car.

How can we offer such a great guarantee?

We have experienced employees who get ongoing training and updated equipment that lets us do better repairs. In fact, Carreras Auto Body employees are certified in airbag replacement, frame repair, electronics and auto body painting as well as I-CAR and GM Certified. Our technicians are permanent employees and have been with us for years.

And the shop invests in the newest equipment, including laser and computer frame straightening and paintless dent repair equipment, for complete repair services. We screen our employees thoroughly and we make sure they're all skilled, reliable and polite.

Clients tell us they feel more comfortable because they know their technicians. Some customers even ask for their favorite techs by name when they bring their cars in.

For over 30 years Carreras Auto Body has provided quality repairs and honest service at fair pricing that doesn't put customers at risk.

Standard Structures

Standard Structures is a manufacturer of custom engineered roof and flooring systems for the residential, commercial and multi-family construction markets. For more than 60 years, Standard Structures has been engineering and manufacturing a family of engineered wood products in custom shapes and sizes.

Working with general contractors, engineers and architects, our experienced engineering and customer service team manages the technical and delivery details that can make or break a project.

Green Building Options

Nearly all of our products can be manufactured with FSC certification. In addition, all of our products are engineered with low VOC, exterior grade adhesives which contain no added urea-formaldehyde. Both of these characteristics are valued by LEED® and other green building systems.

Oak Shadows Construction

Oak Shadows Construction is a full service Sonoma County, CA based construction company, focused primarily on signature homes, country estates and winery buildings. We execute all phases of construction from site preparation and framing through landscape and project completion.

Owned and operated by Sonoma County native Mike Flowers, Oak Shadows has been building homes in Northern California since 1985. For the past 17 years, we have focused primarily on building high-end homes and estates, barns and wineries in Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino Counties.

We work with property owners to build new homes or re-build existing ones -- we also purchase raw land on which to design site-specific custom homes or homes on speculation.

Max Machinery, Inc.

In 1967, John K. Max founded a company that manufactured components for the urethane processing industry. An early innovation in this field was a wide range, precision flow meter to provide closed loop flow control in the blending process. Tight machining tolerances and close attention to assembly and testing delivered the meters that redefined accuracy in the cast urethane market. Outside industries quickly realized the value of these precision devices and now Max meters are used worldwide in a broad cross section of industries.

The Healdsburg bakery is beloved for its legendary artisan breads and open air bakery café. Since its first Sonoma County Harvest Fair Sweepstakes for sourdough bread in 1981, it has been a consistent award winner for specialty and artisan breads which are a mainstay of the café menu offerings. This year, the Best of Show winner was Costeaux's Ciabatta. Costeaux is also well-known for legendary desserts and is a premier purveyor of wedding cakes.

Gin'Gilli's Vintage Home Collective

Vintage Home Collective is a small group of avid collectors and enthusiastic vendors who have come together to purvey their loveliest and most cherished possessions. We have merchandised our store with thoughtfulness and utmost care - you will be dazzled by all the "eye candy" we have provided and curated just for you! We specialize in old nostalgic memories with a little bit of new fancies sprinkled in for good measure. We love anything tattered, chic, & hip...and so will you! We love "visiting" with our customers, we get excited when anyone brings up the subject of antiques, and our aim is to make you feel at ease and at home whenever you shop. Please visit with your friends and loved ones soon!